Why Not: Install Historic District Street Signs?

Courtesy of the New York Times.

GM was recently in New York, and spending a lot of time in and around SoHo. One thing that caught his eye is how New York City uses different street signs for historic districts. Why not bring something like that here?

Above you’ll see an example of normal New York street signs on the left and historic district street signs on the right. In this case, it’s for the Cast Iron Historic District, which encompasses SoHo and Tribeca. It’s a small difference, but it does help signify the neighborhood. This comes in handy especially in New York, where there are tons of historic districts, large and small (there are dozens in Manhattan alone).

DC has a historic district marker in use in some historic districts. Here’s one for Dupont:

Courtesy of Stationsmart.

But for whatever reason they aren’t used in Georgetown. Perhaps the Old Georgetown Board disapproves? Either way, they’re a bit large and a bit boring all at once.

A reconfiguration of the street signs themselves could do the trick without adding too much clutter. Plus they could achieve another old idea GM has had: Why not pay homage to Georgetown’s old street names?

Putting the two together, GM came up with this mock-up, what do you think?

This is hardly a high priority, of course. But it would be a nice way to both celebrate the historic district and the old names (without adopting GM’s more radical idea of just switching back to the old names).